


An Exercise in Patience (is very similar to futility)

by Lunarwolfik



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pack Bonding, Pack Dynamics, Wolf Pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-03
Updated: 2012-07-03
Packaged: 2017-11-09 02:44:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/450388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarwolfik/pseuds/Lunarwolfik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek decides chasing crazy lizard people is a great exercise for the pups.  They need to learn tracking and he needs someone tracked.</p><p>His patience is only tested a little.</p><p>(Vague) Spoilers for 2x06</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Exercise in Patience (is very similar to futility)

When Derek comes back from chasing Jackson, he still has blood on his shirt and it’s a measure in patience to keep his fangs from showing. 

His pack is at the, well, he doesn’t want to call it a lair but it’s what they call it and it certainly isn’t _home_ so, lair it is. They’re a little beat up, but nothing major, nothing that hasn’t already healed.

Boyd is there, cool and calm as always, watching the Alpha intently and giving the other two much needed space. They have some pent up aggression, their pride’s wounded and they don’t have an outlet for the hurt.

“Did you get him?” Erica asks, hopeful, eyes bright with a taste for blood, for vengeance. She’s never talked about the bullying, never said a word about who she had been _before_ but Derek knows there was no love lost between her and Jackson. Knows that she’s eager to sink tooth and claw into his skin, reptilian or otherwise. 

Derek shakes his head, fighting the growl, tamping down his inner wolf. Erica’s eyes fall, Isaac looks crestfallen.

Derek claps his hands together, giving them all a measuring look.

“And you know what that means?” he asks, feeling a streak of joy flutter in his chest because he can do this, he can teach his pack and this is how pack is made.

They give him questioning looks.

“Tracking time.”

***

Erica whines, there’s no if, ands, or buts about it. She whines.

“This is stupid,” she starts.

“This won’t work,” she continues.

“The woods smell like tree and dirt and blood. How am I supposed to focus?” She ends and this is when Derek cuffs her, curtly but not too rough.

“If you already knew how, I wouldn’t need to train you, now would I? Focus, Erica. Let your senses do the heavy lifting for you. Let go of what you’re thinking, let the instinct take over.”

She breathes, once. Deep and meaningful before letting it go with a sputter and an eye roll. She wanders away instead, a pitched grumble following in her wake. “Yes, Mr. Miyagi. Of course, wax on, wax off. Can’t I just go chase the deer…”

Derek chooses to ignore it, knowing it’s all in good fun, and because she’s finally taking to heart his lessons on walking through the trees like a proper wolf instead of an elephant. Baby steps, he tells himself. Baby steps are good.

Isaac was doing a little better, eager and chomping at the bit to race off tracking who knows what so long as it would get him moving. He needed focus, needed a better guide then his rampant urge to please.

“What do you smell now, Isaac?”

The kid breathes in, his eyes flashing a quick golden brown. If Derek were the proud type, he’d have smiled. Instead, he schools his features, knowing discipline is a better guide than hope.

“Bambi about a hundred yards away, she’s scared, keeps hearing our voices. Um….lots of…dead trees. Maybe a fox from a few hours ago, when the sun was just going up?”

Derek nods, all approval. “Good. Good. That’s a start. Now are you sure Bambi’s afraid of us or-“ he turns, takes a deep breath in the direction of the deer. He can’t help the shift that starts, tasting the animal’s fear, the exhilaration that they’re closing in.

“Or is it upwind and heading _towards_ us. Which means it’s heading away from someone else.” Boyd chimes in from Derek’s left, an easy smile gracing his face.

Derek does smile this time, all fangs and alpha wolf pride. “Exactly.”

He nods north and the two boys take point, swift and deadly in the trees.

“Erica, quit grumbling, we’ve got a scent,” he calls out and she returns lightning fast, body practically humming with eagerness. She’s already sporting claws. Good, she’s learning.

“Bambi?”

“Bambi.” He nods towards the others, feeling indulgent.

She lets out a squeak, all girlish delight, and her happiness is evident in the way that she bolts after them. He follows at a measured pace, watching their movements, gauging their tactics.

Once they found the deer it was only a matter of time before he would pick up Scott’s scent, spicy with undertones of aftershave, mingled with the always distinct smell of a fellow wolf. Like…(he won’t say home, he can’t). Like pack, like bonded. 

Or maybe Stiles’, like fresh rain and morning dew, hedged by chlorine and chemical imbalance, the Adderall making him smell _different_ (he won’t admit that the boy still smells different when not taking it, he won’t). 

Maybe Allison, her’s was always the more delicate of the three, easily missed in the woods for all the sage and thistle it held. She could have escaped her parents by now. 

Derek snorts to himself as Isaac pounces on the deer, the animal easily scurrying away, having been on point for at least ten yards since the kid had gotten over eager the second he saw it, forgetting how sharp a single crunch of a leaf could be. 

His pack had a lot to learn.

But they were _his_.


End file.
